We humans are curious creatures, moved by emotions, yet frightened by their unmanageability. Emotions are messy, so we try to control them, even suppress them. But life without feeling becomes life without meaning. Intellect and will, divorced from emotion, leave us cold and bone dry, like a frost-damaged tree with too little sap.

One of the great insights of the bhakti masters: Emotional energy is the great, untapped resource in our spiritual lives. Don't fight it, harness it! Direct it! Awaken passion! Let it carry you with giddy speed into the arms of the Beloved.

In delight, feel the nearness of the Beloved. In sorrow and loss, feel the ache that returns your gaze to the Beloved. Let every emotion charge you, magnetize you, tune you to that sweet presence that is ever near.

When the flames of love are fanned to full force, the lover is no longer seeking to "possess" the Beloved; rather, the lover is lost in the Beloved's beauty...

Like the birdThat gazes all nightAt the passing moon,I have lost myself dwelling in You.